


Proper Disposal of Project Materials

by LaughingStones



Series: Until I Fix What's Broken [2]
Category: Motorcity
Genre: Apparently everyone likes the techs from Never Quite Thought We Could Lose It All, Caretaking, Cyborg chuck, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, so here's a little more of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 11:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11289819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingStones/pseuds/LaughingStones
Summary: Chuck doesn't remember falling, but he remembers the technicians, the guys he spent years training with in R&D, pulling him up from his exhausted, trembling heap on the floor and whisperingplay along.He'd let them lift him, hung there limp and listened to them flat-out lie to the ultra-elites who were guarding the room.He's drained, can't you tell?  Look at him, he's burned out enough he might as well be dead.*The techs take care of Chuck.





	Proper Disposal of Project Materials

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Splickedy and Roach for giving me eager hopeful looks until I wrote this in self-defense, and thanks to Splick for the series title!

Raoul steps into the empty R&D break room and heads for the couch in the back corner. Two steps away the deserted scene wavers and shifts as he passes through the masking hologram someone's set up. Suddenly there's a lanky blond boy sprawled the length of the couch, passed out, and a broad-chested guy with a ponytail perched on the arm of the couch, glaring at Raoul with crossed arms.

Frowning, Raoul looks the unconscious kid over. His blond hair is matted with dried sweat, his closed eyes have shiny dark spots under them, and Raoul is pretty sure his breathing shouldn't be that shallow. He can't be certain, of course--who knows with a cyborg? Especially when there's only two of them, and this one's the prototype.

"He doesn't look so good,” Raoul says quietly, ignoring the glare of his watcher. Ben may act like a dick, but he's got just as big a soft spot for the kid as any of them. Chuck was young for an intern to start with, and then he joined R&D in an official capacity younger than anyone else. Of course everyone got attached to the kid. And then Kane pulls this testing-to-destruction bullshit, and now the entire department is ready to flip tables over their adoptive kid brother.

“No fucking joke, genius,” Ben answers, in just as low a voice. “As murder attempts go, it was a pretty good try. Anton and I only got him out of there by telling the elites some of the tech in him was at risk of exploding.”

“Well, good job keeping him from blowing up,” Raoul says, leaning on the wall.

Ben sneers at him, but Raoul doesn't take it personally. “Him shutting down completely was more likely,” Ben says. “You know how fast he burns through food. He was running those tests for two days without so much as a fucking snack!” He stops, glances at Chuck and lowers his voice from the angry snarl. “He's starving, and I can't get enough nutrition into him before he passes out again. As low on fuel as he is, I'm not even sure how he's been waking up.”

Raoul glances at the little table beside the couch, the nutrition cubes mounded there next to a water bottle. “Those are good, but they're not dense enough. He needs a lot of stuff as fast as possible, something condensed… I'll be back in a minute.”

It doesn't take him long to cadge some samples, and then he's back, brandishing the container of much smaller cubes before Ben’s dubious eye. “Fahizi’s working on more efficient nutrition as a side project,” Raoul explains. “He hopes to get these in the Cadets’ mess hall. Seems like it's worth a try here. Uh--I can't guarantee the flavor.”

Ben snorts. “He's got more pressing problems,” he points out, and leans over to touch Chuck’s shoulder, patting him gently. Raoul has a second to think there's no way that'll be enough to wake him up, and then Chuck’s whole body jolts and he moans, blue eyes opening wide.

“ _Nnh_ \--no,” he gasps, and his arms twitch, try to lift, shaking.

“Man, lie still,” Ben says, gently catching one wrist.

“No, don't, I can't anymore,” Chuck moans, eyes unfocused, and there's a burst of wind as the slingshot in his arm materializes.

“ _Chuck_ ,” Ben says. “It's Ben. Cut it out, man, you don't have the strength for this.”

Chuck’s whimpering quiets as he gasps for breath. “Warning,” he pants, “fuel reserves insufficient for plasma conversion.”

“Yeah, that's what I'm telling you,” Ben says, and Chuck pauses, blinking in confusion.

Raoul hesitates before stepping forward and brushing a hand across his forehead, pushing aside sweat-clumped bangs that are getting a little too long. Chuck catches his breath, moans again more quietly.

“Hurts,” he mumbles, squeezing his eyes shut, and when he opens them again they focus. “Ben? I--hurts so bad.”

“I know,” Ben says, tight-lipped. “You were running obstacle courses and shit for almost two days without any breaks, your muscles are pretty done with this shit, artificial or not.”

“Energy critically low: shutdown imminent,” Chuck murmurs, staring up at the ceiling. The slingshot abruptly dematerializes.

“Yeah, I know,” Ben says. “Just lie still, we gotta get some food into you. Then you'll start retaining information again,” he finishes in a mutter, and grabs the container of sample cubes from Raoul.

“Oh,” Chuck says, blinking. “I woke up before, didn't I.”

“Twice,” Ben confirms, digging out a couple of mini cubes. “Open your mouth and eat these.”

Chuck tries to lift a hand to take them, groans, and reluctantly opens his mouth. Ben pops the cubes in and gets up to grab the water bottle. From the way Chuck’s mouth twists as he chews, Raoul suspects Fahizi understated the taste issue.

“Oh my god,” Chuck says weakly after swallowing, “that is disgusting.”

“Let's get you propped up,” Ben says, nodding at Raoul to help, “and you can eat a bunch more of them.”

“That's a terrible idea,” Chuck protests. “Where's my motivation?”

“Staying alive,” Ben growls, and Chuck stares until Ben and Raoul begin pulling him up enough for Ben to sit down behind him and prop him partly upright. Chuck makes an obvious effort to stay quiet, but his muffled whimpers and bitten-off cries make Raoul’s gut twist.

Finally they get him slumped back against Ben’s broad chest, breathing hard, shaking a little with fatigue and pain. Ben shoves more cubes in his mouth and he chews tiredly, drinking when Ben holds the water bottle to his mouth.

Raoul is actually pretty impressed by the careful tending Ben’s doing. Sure, the guy cares, but Raoul wouldn't have guessed he'd be down for hand-feeding, watching every breath Chuck takes like this.

Crouching next to the couch, Raoul puts a hand over Chuck’s where it rests limply on the cushion beside him. “Not sure there's much we can do about the strain on your muscles, but if we can get you fueled up that should help all your systems self-repair.”

Chuck swallows the mouthful of mini cubes and seals his lips against the next ones Ben tries to push in his mouth. “Wait,” he says, turning his head away a little, though moving pulls a groan out of him. “What's the point? I'm supposed to be decommissioned, I--the program’s been declared a failure, I--I'm _dead_.” His voice is shaking.

“Mm,” Ben says. “I know this is a shock, but turns out we don't care what Kane wants.”

“As far as anyone official knows, you _are_ dead,” Raoul says. “No one's going to be looking for you.”

Chuck stares sideways at Raoul, then up over his head at Ben. “But… then what? Someone's going to come in here who doesn't know eventually, and they'll report me and then--”

“There's a hologram up in here,” Raoul says. “It doesn't have to work for long, just a day or two, time for you to recover enough to function.”

Chuck’s wide eyes are glowing very faintly, fixed on Raoul. “And then what?”

“Then you're gonna leave,” Ben says flatly. “Go somewhere no one wants you dead.”

In the subsequent pause, Chuck’s mouth drops open in shock and Ben ruthlessly shoves mini cubes into it. Chuck huffs through his nose and chews, glaring. Ben’s lips curve at one corner in an almost-smile and Raoul agrees; it's good to see the kid getting a little spark back.

“You want me,” Chuck says when he's swallowed, “to go live in Murdercity, with the freaks and criminals.”

“We want you to _live_ ,” Ben growls.

“Also, quoting propaganda isn't cute unless you're doing it ironically,” Raoul says.

Chuck makes a grumbling noise and accepts another handful of mini cubes. Ben gives him a drink of water and Chuck’s eyes sag closed.

“I guess it is pretty ironic,” he mumbles, “since I am a freak and I will be a criminal, alive against orders.” He lets out a long sigh, voice dropping lower. “What better place for a broken piece of junk than a giant junk heap…”

Raoul is ready to protest that, but Ben just shrugs minimally and says, “Survival first, _then_ self-esteem.”

Chuck snorts faintly and goes still, breath slowing and deepening. Raoul looks at the mini cubes left in the container.

“If I remember what Fahizi told me right,” he murmurs, “he just ate the equivalent of three full meals.”

“Good,” Ben says, also keeping quiet. “He's got a fuck of an energy debt to catch up on. Looking better, though--you think you can get some more of these?”

“Fahizi saw part of the ‘stress testing’,” Raoul says grimly. “I'm pretty sure I can.”

*

By the end of the day, Chuck is only waking up every four hours, which means that he's built up enough reserves that he's not getting woken every hour by the ‘shutdown imminent’ alarm. Now he can catch up on his sleep debt--and so can Ben, who was awake for most of the stress-testing and hasn't slept yet. Raoul takes a stim tab and volunteers for Chuck-watching night shift.

Turns out that now Chuck is actually sleeping instead of unconscious, he dreams, and unsurprisingly, it's not pleasant. Raoul has to dive off his chair before the kid flails himself right off the couch, and catches him by shoulder and hip, saving him from the fall.

Blue eyes flick over his face, wide and terrified, and Raoul is grateful to see recognition there.

“Hey, man,” he says softly. “Just a dream, it's okay. You're okay.”

“I'm not,” Chuck says, thin and miserable, and rubs his hands over his face, only hissing a little at strained muscles. “It's not. I messed up everything. The project is a failure, I'm a failed prototype, and I was stupid enough to get Mike into this and I have no idea if he's okay or not. I haven't--we weren't allowed to have any contact for… a long time.” He looks up at Raoul, biting his lip. “You don't know how he's doing, do you? Have you heard anything?”

Raoul shakes his head. He hasn't heard anything directly, but he's gathered enough hints from passing conversations in the hall to be sure Chuck’s friend isn't exactly having a good time. He's not mentioning it because there's nothing Chuck could do besides be even more distressed.

“I was peripheral on the project in the first place,” he reminds Chuck. “Once you all got past the experimental phase, I was pretty much out of the need-to-know loop. Sorry.”

Chuck nods, rubbing his face again. “Okay. Okay, maybe… maybe he's okay. He was perfect for the project, all the results looked really good to start with, and--and he was a cadet! No one would--they wouldn't throw away a cadet.”

Raoul isn't sure cadets are as exempt as all that from Kane’s cruelty, but he nods anyway because Chuck needs to calm down enough to get back to sleep. Cadets are all jerks, anyway. Raoul's not going to say the guy deserves whatever he gets, but he can probably handle it better than Chuck could.

“Okay,” Chuck mutters. “He's okay.”

“Were you dreaming about him?” Raoul asks.

Chuck’s head twitches in an uncomfortable sorta-shrug. “He was in there, yeah,” he sighs.

Raoul nods. “Think you can go back to sleep?”

Chuck makes a face and sighs. “Probably,” he says, closing his eyes. “Don't wanna, but I'm so tired…”

“I'll be right here,” Raoul says quietly.

Chuck’s shoulders hitch up a little bit in a way that looks self-conscious. “Thanks,” he says in a very small voice, and Raoul ruffles his hair.

Chuck wakes up a number of times after that, but mostly just enough to blink at Raoul, relax, and fall back asleep. The only other nightmare rough enough to wake him all the way is even worse, though. Raoul would rather get smacked in the face when Chuck wakes flailing than have him making keening noises in his sleep, waking up to choke on tears. Chuck tries to muffle himself, pressing his face against the couch, but his shoulders are shaking, his skinny back trembling, and it's just--it's not okay. Raoul is not okay with any of this.

He perches on the edge of the couch, nudging Chuck over a little, and rubs his back, trying to find something comforting to say. _I'm so sorry, kid_. True but pointless. _We tried to figure out how to stop it, we couldn't find a way, Anton practically had a meltdown_. Even more useless.

“You're gonna be okay,” he murmurs finally. “We're gonna take care of you, get you back on your feet, all right? We--we've got you. I've got you, I'm here.”

Chuck shudders and sobs louder for a moment, which seems like a bad reaction, but then one hand flails backwards and finds Raoul’s shoulder, clinging to it, and that's pretty clear. After a few minutes he gets quieter, slowly relaxing, and Raoul keeps patting him and rubbing his shoulders on the principle that if it might be helping, he probably shouldn't stop.

When he finally goes still and quiet, Raoul pats him one last time and grabs the nutrition mini cubes to get a few more into him before he falls asleep again. Chuck grumbles a little, which is reassuring, and when he gets back to sleep, the couple hours left of the night are peaceful.

*

“Remember to stick to the northeast quadrant,” Ben says for the fifth time as Chuck studies the map of access tunnels he uploaded from Raoul. They're standing in a little-used corridor by a restricted-access door, waiting for the lockpad to finish cycling and accept Raoul’s hacked ID.

“The sensors and cameras there are mostly dead and no one's bothered to replace them,” Ben goes on. 

“Dude, I've _got_ it,” Chuck says, “northeast quadrant, it's not that complicated.” He's jittering a little with nerves as he scrolls down the screen. They got him a hot shower and a change of clothes, and that plus actually getting some sleep apparently made a world of difference. He reports his legs still ache, but the important thing is he can run now if he needs to.

A number of R&D techs wandered into the break room at various points today and hung around while Ben grilled them, until Raoul gave in and waved them past the hologram. Honestly there was no need to be so cautious, since Ben and Raoul know who can be trusted and who can't, but Ben was insistent that Chuck couldn't afford any mistakes. 

Most of the techs just looked Chuck over, nodded in relief that he seemed okay, and wished him good luck before slipping out again, but there was more than one awkward hug. Anton didn't seem to want to let go, he was so grateful to see Chuck on his feet.

For his part, Chuck seems as much bewildered as touched by the stream of well-wishers, which is dumb for a kid as smart as he is. He really needs to work on that self-esteem.

“He'll be fine,” Raoul reminds Ben.

“I _know_ ,” Ben snaps, and Chuck blinks like he's just now realizing how worried they are for him. 

“I will,” he says cautiously. “I'll be okay, I--I can do this.” He's obviously scared, and just as obviously trying to hide it, and Raoul finally gives in and hugs him.

Chuck squeaks in surprise, then carefully hugs him back. Raoul squeezes him, ruffles his hair, and steps away. Chuck gives Ben an uncertain look and Ben snorts and crosses his arms. Raoul rolls his eyes at the guy and Ben glares back. The impasse lasts a moment before Raoul shrugs elaborately and turns away, allowing Ben to grab Chuck in a one-armed almost-hug before clapping him on the shoulder and moving hastily away again. Some people have no idea how this interpersonal touching thing is supposed to work.

“You're good,” Raoul tells Chuck, handing over the maintenance kit he scrounged up. “You'll do fine, you've got everything it takes.”

Chuck swallows and nods, eyes flashing blue briefly, probably running another systems check.

“You'll be at the head of some tech gang before the month is out,” Raoul adds with a grin, and Chuck twitches.

“Ahahaha! Right, sure!” he says, voice cracking. “That's totally a thing that could happen.”

“Relax, you'll be fine,” Ben says impatiently, and then hesitates. “Look, take care of yourself.”

Chuck swallows again. “I will. ...Thanks, guys. Um, you too.”

“Ten seconds,” Raoul says, tensing as the lockpad on the door blinks green.

“I've got this,” Chuck mutters, looks back at the two of them one last time, and slips through the door, which relocks behind him.

There's nothing else to see, so the two of them head back to their cubicles before some Security patrol can find them loitering suspiciously.

“I still think one of us could've gone with him,” Ben mutters.

“You _know_ how much more dangerous that'd be,” Raoul says. “You'd have to make it there _and_ back unnoticed, you'd need someone on this side to hack the lock again--”

“I know!” Ben growls. “I just…”

“I know,” Raoul sighs. “Me too.”

Chuck will be fine. He's a smart kid, he's a fucking cyborg with a plasma weapon in his arm, he can take care of himself, even when he's kind of wrecked. He'll get to Motorcity safe and sound, and he'll figure out a life there, and he'll be fine.

He'll be fine. Raoul goes back to work and reminds himself of that for the rest of the day.


End file.
